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Journalism of Courage
– Rachna Arora
Walk into any Class 11 Physics class and you will instantly see where both degrees begin. The teacher draws a free-body diagram. One student nods confidently, another is still hunting for a missing vector, and someone at the back is hoping calculus doesn’t enter the room.
And that is the real point — no matter which one of these three you were, this same school physics is the foundation for both Electrical Engineering (EE) and Engineering Physics (EP). Mechanics, waves, optics, electromagnetism — all of it returns, only deeper. The first year of both degrees is almost identical. If school physics made sense, you’ll be fine. If it didn’t… at least now you know early.
The split starts in second year.
EE is for students who like opening gadgets just to see what lives inside. It moves straight into circuits, electronics, motors, power systems, communication engineering, sensors, and robotics. Those neat textbook diagrams finally become real lab devices — the kind the instructor warns you not to drop because “this one is expensive.”
In EE, you finally understand:
– Why radio stations sit 0.2 MHz apart
– Why ABS reacts before you even realise the tyre slipped- Why mobile antennas are tiny but radio antennas look like towers
– How a prosthetic arm reads muscle activity
Everything leads to real-world use. You build machines and circuits, test them, debug them, and watch them run.
That is EE’s biggest strength — you see results quickly.
Career options are wide, starting from consumer electronics, renewable energy, automobiles, telecom, defence, aviation, medical devices, manufacturing, power plants, and roles in ISRO or Tesla-type companies. EE students usually get plenty of job choices because almost every field needs electrical engineers somewhere.
EP starts with the same base but goes straight into deeper physics and tougher math. This is for students who always want the “why,” not just the “how.”
EP includes:
– Quantum mechanics
– Statistical mechanics
– Solid-state physics
– Lasers and photonics
– Advanced electromagnetism
– Nanotechnology
– Modelling and simulations
Those Class 11 projectiles return — now with air resistance, temperature effects, and differential equations. F = ma quietly becomes a long expression.
EP students study materials at low temperatures, analyse light behaviour, work on quantum-level devices — and even tackle problems like predicting the path of multiple orbiting bodies, sometimes not even in the same plane.
Scientists studying 3I/ATLAS, the interstellar comet passing through our Solar System, deal with this level of complexity every day — the kind of physics school textbooks never mentioned. So, EP is specialised, rigorous, and research-heavy.
Career options include semiconductor R&D, DRDO and ISRO scientist roles, quantum-tech industries, advanced optics, materials science, and data modelling. EP may have fewer jobs at the start, but the specialised roles later pay very well.
Almost everywhere.
A satellite needs both, EE builds the power, sensors, and communication systems; EP studies how radiation and space conditions affect them. EP works out the science behind how something should behave, and EE turns that science into real hardware.
Both require coding — EE for hardware systems, EP for simulations — but for different reasons.
Neither.
Choose EE if you like building things and want many career options. Choose EP if deep concepts and tough math genuinely interest you. Pick the degree you will still enjoy on a normal Tuesday — not the one that impresses the family WhatsApp group.
(The author is the senior educator at Shiv Nadar School, Noida)
